When the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica passed a resolution approving the creation of a web site that published the mug shots and personal information of dozens of fugitives from justice, the host server crashed. The few Ticos who were able to browse the new site immediately went to the online version of national newspaper La Nacion and weighed in with their opinions:

• “It doesn’t work!”
• “They should just publish it on Facebook, or even in print media instead for better results”
• “The pictures do not display correctly”
• “I don’t see a reward. Why should I use it?”
• “Is this propaganda by the high court? We already have 800sebusca.com since last year”

For the record, the page is now up and running. The most interesting comment is about 800sebusca.com, a separate website maintained by Fuerza Publica that publishes photos and information of wanted suspects or known perpetrators. There is a marked difference between both sites, and the reason why the high court had to approve the creation of the site and later announced it to the press has to do with the Criminal Code and privacy laws in Costa Rica.

The new site announced by the court is called “Sentenciados en Fuga” (sentenced fugitives). It contains information on individuals who have been convicted and sentenced beyond the shadow of doubt. There are no suspects or people whose trials are pending on this page. If someone has been convicted and sentenced of a crime but poses no threat to society and is not considered a flight risk, he or she may appeal the case prior to incarceration and would not appear on the new site.

Only those with firm sentences, or who have escaped from a penal institution or program would appear on the new site. There are 47 photos listed now, and the offenses listed range from possession of hallucinogenics to homicide. According to an article by David Delgado in La Nacion, the Office of Judicial Investigations (OIJ in Spanish) had 770 individuals with arrest warrants on their records in early May, but only 75 had a firm sentence. The rest were suspects, or even people who showed up late for court or checked in late to a correctional institution. Tardiness in the criminal justice and correctional systems in Costa Rica is legendary, and both perpetrators and officials are notorious for being late.

800sebusca.com, on the other hand, is a law enforcement -rather than judicial- online tool. It helps Fuerza Publica track down suspects who have been booked and charged by prosecutors, so there must be strong and documented reasonable suspicion to publish photographs and personal information.

Why did the court have to approve the sentenced fugitives site? Shouldn’t that be public information to begin with?

Trial attorney and judicial expert Juan Diego Castro explains the question above with his explanation as to why there are no “perp walks” in Costa Rica. Perp walks are those media-rich photo ops for law enforcement agencies to show off their prized catch by parading handcuffed suspects before the cameras. These situations are commonly observed in the United States, and they are sometimes embarrassing for law enforcement and prosecutors when they get the wrong guy and the perp walk backfires.

Perp walks in Costa Rica are risky for law enforcement due to Article 228 of the Criminal Code (PDF). The problem resides with the identification of a suspect. If a suspect’s face is shown online, in a newspaper, or on television, how can a witness ascertain identification without having been influenced by the media? The hard work of Fuerza Publica or other law enforcement agencies could be undone by a single image in the media.

Then there’s also Article 331 of the Criminal Code, whereupon anyone involved in a criminal proceeding can request to not have his voice or image recorded. This is not a sealed trial; it is just a request for privacy, and anyone -not just defendants- can invoke it and the court must comply. These two articles can be considered part of a system of checks and balances in place to prevent overzealous law enforcement from parading suspects before the community, and to ensure that the judicial branch respects privacy.

With regard to the Criminal Code articles above, they cease to apply once a firm warrant or sentence has been applied, and that is when personal information can be approved to be published on the aforementioned websites.